Columns

On January 14 we officially adjourned the 2014 Special Session and began the 2015 Session in the Virginia House of Delegates. This year is a shorter, 45-day legislative session, but my colleagues and I are still committed to offering a substantive and robust agenda.
This year, I was reappointed to the House Committees Transportation and Counties, Cities, and Towns. In addition to my committee work, some of my priorities for this session include:

The 2015 session of the Virginia General Assembly began last week. If you feel as though the last session never ended, you’re not alone. Last year’s lengthy budget impasse led to a long special session of the 2014 General Assembly, which formally ended a few minutes before the new session began.

I don’t understand a religion that doesn’t have a sense of humor.
On a broader scale, I don’t understand people, religious or not, who can’t laugh at themselves and the many absurdities of life. At least two out of the three major religions in our world value humor.
Jews, in particular, have always had a tradition of attempting to ease their long suffering with laughter. Why did the Jews wander in the desert for 40 years? Because one of them dropped a quarter!

Leaders from 40 countries came to Paris on Jan. 11 to lead a million Parisians in a march to protest the murder of Charlie Hebdo journalists the previous week. German Chancellor Angela Merkel came to Paris as did Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was there as was Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, president of Mali, a Muslim majority country in North-Western Africa. Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was also there and he and Keita shook hands.

The House of Representatives kicked off the 114th Congress this week, eager to work with the new majority in the Senate and take action on several jobs bills. The House is focused on solutions to the problems faced by the American people – solutions that spur job creation and lay the groundwork for a stronger, more vibrant economy. That focus was reinforced by the legislation approved this week.

As both political parties maneuver for the presidential campaign of 2016, all the newer names are so far eclipsed by some others that are very familiar.
It’s not Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, or even Elizabeth Warren who’s grabbing all the oxygen. It’s a Clinton, another Bush, and yes, even....Mitt Romney!
The party’s 2012 nominee shook the political landscape last week when he backed off his long insistence that he had no further interest in running, and said, well, he still does!

People like to talk about a new year as if it were a clean slate. It isn’t. Stuff from the old year always carries over into the new. Sometimes it’s the fruit, or consequences, of what we did in the old year. Often, it’s unfinished business.

The level of discourse among town council candidates generated by the last campaign season was heartening. This healthy competition is good for the political process, the sorting of community concerns and ultimately the running of local government. Now the fun begins … we get to hold the winners accountable for what they said and what they promised!

Did you hear the joke about the Christian school that – rather than take the Lord's advice and turn the other cheek when it felt abused – actually hired lawyers and went to court instead?
Sadly, in Lynchburg, it's not a joke at all.